Sidelines
by Anrheithwyr
Summary: Andromeda had never wanted to be in the middle of the war; it was safer to hide in the shadows, stay out of the limelight. After all, nothing bad can happen if no one remembers you, right?


_**Written for the 'HP Potions Competition' by Black Boxed for the category **__**Love Potion**__** – **__**Write about true love**__**. **_

_**Also written for the 'If You Dare Challenge' by Slytherin Cat, using prompt # 13, time goes by. (I know I just wrote about her earlier this week, but I really like Andromeda. She strikes me as a bitter, troubled woman, especially after 1998.) **_

….

Andromeda understood not everyone in life is important.

Not everyone goes on to do great things.

Not everyone is a hero.

Some people have to stand on the side lines,

Cheering for those fighting.

Wishing you could join in, but knowing it's safer,

In the background.

Because it is sometimes true that the background is

The best place to be.

You're less likely to get hurt.

Less likely to be burned.

Because, in the background, no one sees you-

No one targets you.

In the background,

You don't get hurt,

Right?

….

Andromeda wasn't entirely sure she believed in _true love_, but she certainly had found something special with Ted. Ted, who's laugh made birds chirp, who's eyes crinkled when he smiled, who always seemed to smell like cigarette smoke and bubble gum-an odd combination, but Andromeda had learned to love it. Ted, who had promised to love her _forever and ever, till death do us part. _With Ted, she could believe that there was something more to the world than just the Pureblood mania (_It's all bullshit, anyway_.) that her family had taught her.

With Ted, she was more than just one more girl who had made one more mistake. With Ted, she was more than a disobedient, foolish daughter. Everyone thought she'd fallen in love with the wrong person, made the wrong choice. People said she'd made a mistake when she had walked out with Ted Tonks and left behind her wealthy, affluent family.

This is her mistake.

….

If no one know you're there, they won't hurt you.

If no one _cares _you're there, they won't hurt you.

She was a shadow, standing away from the front line.

Andromeda, not just another hero for the ages-

No, she stood to the sidelines, and _watched. _

She helped, but not by raising a wand, or casting a spell.

She helped by walking away from her family,

Marrying a man she shouldn't have,

Giving birth to a girl who was born to be different,

Helping a young man to change the world.

Andromeda was not a hero-

She never wanted to be.

She asked to be.

She never intended to be.

And she stood apart,

And she watched her family _burn_.

….

Burying Ted, burying Dora. Even burying _bloody Remus Lupin_, because she's the only family he's got left. A disapproving mother-in-law, and an infant son; that's all Remus Lupin had when he died. And all Andromeda has is the look of peace on her husband's face, the expressionless, permanent sleep of her daughter as their bodies are slowly lowered into the ground. Behind her, Molly Weasley is comforting two sobbing girls, one red-haired and the other brunette. Andromeda's head is too muddled to bother trying to remember names; all she is focused on is the silent figure of Potter, holding her grandson, who is sleeping quietly against the teenager's chest. Potter is not even seventeen, godfather to a difficult infant.

"I'll take him, now," she says to him softly, and he hands Teddy over, who mumbled incoherently, but does not wake up. Andy takes in Potter's face, noticing the vacant expression, the tired eyes, the pale tinge to his skin. He is obviously exhausted, physically, emotionally, and mentally; he's trying to hide the guilt and the pain inside. Andromeda knows how he feels, because that's what she's doing now, burrowing inside herself and covering up all the feelings. She feels pity for this young man, and reaches out, touching his shoulder. "You know…as time goes by….."

"It gets better?" he asks, smiling bitterly, like he's heard these words before; he probably has, seeing as his parents and many of his friends are now gone, lost over the years. "I'll eventually be able to smile? Go on, please. Tell me what will happen, if I just let go of my emotions-believe me, I've heard them all, Mrs. Tonks. I know every single one of those pep-talk phrases that they tell you when someone dies; I've been hearing them for years." His hands are clenched, and she nods, walking away. They're both a little angry right now, angry at the world, at themselves. Two survivors, struggling to not just collapse.

Andromeda would have to give him a call, soon. Check up on young Harry Potter one day.

…..

Andromeda did not forget easily.

She rarely ever forgave.

The world had done nothing for her,

And she felt no reason that she needed to help.

But, looking at that frightened young man,

All she could see was Teddy in twenty years.

Bitter.

Angry.

Hating everyone and everything, because

Mum and Dad were dead, and so was everyone else.

She didn't want to see Teddy that way.

She didn't want to see Harry that way.

She didn't want to be

Bitter.

Angry.

Upset.

She wanted to go back, do it all.

She wanted to be a key player, a main character.

She wanted to be important, instead of

Merely hiding on the sidelines.

She wished she could make things right.


End file.
